Obama Visits Virginia
By Pamela Stallsmith and Olympia Meola, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Feb. 18–RELATED: Presidential Campaign 2008
While officially endorsing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s bid for the White House yesterday, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared Virginia a “toss-up state” for the 2008 presidential election.
Speaking in front of the Executive Mansion with Obama, an Illinois Democrat, Kaine said his election and those of fellow Democrats U.S. Sen. Jim Webb and former Gov. Mark R. Warner show that Virginia is a presidential player.
Kaine cited recent visits of Republican hopefuls U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Obama, who came to Richmond to address last night a sold-out annual Democratic fundraiser.
Kaine said a Democrat can take Virginia, a traditionally conservative stronghold that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, by expressing good ideas in a way that makes people feel they are part of the discourse.
“In the past, I think Republican candidates often took us for granted because they didn’t need to come. And Democratic candidates came some but didn’t come much because it seemed like such an uphill struggle,” Kaine said. “But in 2008 we’ll have a lot of activity from both parties in Virginia because Virginia now, I think, is a toss-up state.”
Obama agreed, telling about four dozen reporters assembled in the mansion’s driveway that Virginia represents a fundamental shift taking place in American politics — “I think it is a shift away from a sharply ideol- ogical politics to a pragmatic, common-sense results-oriented politics.”
He spoke last night to a record crowd of about 4,000 at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, the annual fundraiser of the Democratic Party of Virginia, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The event raised nearly $700,000, and tickets sold out three days after Obama was announced as the keynote speaker.
Other speakers included Kaine, who mentioned his endorsement of Obama; Warner; Webb; and L. Douglas Wilder, former governor and now Richmond mayor.
In a wide-ranging, 40-minute speech, Obama spoke of his oposition to the war in Iraq, the need for alternative energies and more affordable health care. He also cited the need to set aside petty differences and work together to move the country forward. He frequently invoked the theme of his recent book, “The Audacity of Hope,” to explain his presidential aspirations.
“I’m running because over the last several years we seem to have lost that capacity to dream big dreams,” he said.
After the speech, Beblon Parks of South Richmond said she was inspired by his message of “the notion that things can be better no matter how bad it is if we work together.”
With a year to go until the primaries, Obama said Kaine becomes the first governor outside of his home state to endorse his candidacy. Kaine said he knows the other Democratic candidates fairly well but that he favors Obama because of his values and vision.
“I’m enthusiastic,” Kaine said at the endorsement news conference. “Just the opportunities that we had to work together, my sense of where the nation is and what the nation needs makes me believe that the senator is the right candidate. I don’t always do things the cautious way, I do things when my gut tells me it’s right to do them.”
Kaine met Obama during his 2005 gubernatorial race, when the senator helped his campaign. Obama also made several appearances last year on behalf of Webb.
Kaine and Obama have several things in common: they’re graduates of Harvard Law School, both are civil-rights lawyers and their mothers come from the same town of El Dorado, Kan.
“I won’t lose a second’s sleep with Barack Obama as president of the United States because I know what he’s bringing to the job.”
Obama served for eight years in the Illinois Senate before in 2004 becoming the third black person since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate, in which he is serving his first term.
The men and their wives stood on the mansion’s steps, facing the state Capitol — once the capitol of the Confederacy.
When asked how he felt standing in the shadow of such a history, Obama called it humbling.
“Here we are in the heart of what was the Confederacy,” he said. “For me to be able to stand here as an African-American reflects the enormous progress that this country has made. And I think to some degree represents not the perfection of the union, but a whole lot of progress in perfecting this union.”
Mark Bergman, a party spokesman, said last night’s event was the largest plated dinner in the city’s history. Tickets started at $165, which included a filet and crab cake dinner.
As the fundraiser got under way last night, numerous Democratic leaders were introduced to cheers and clapping, but the mention of state Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III, D-Richmond, drew boos. Lambert received considerable criticism last year for his endorsement of Republican Sen. George Allen, who lost to Webb.
Contact staff writer Pamela Stallsmith at pstallsmith@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6746.
Contact staff writer Olympia Meola at omeola@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6812.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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